July 2 Bee Yard Visit - A Hot Day!

What a hot day in southeast Texas!  We planned to arrive early at the bee yard to avoid the afternoon heat.  But, getting there before noon didn't matter much.  It was still hot.  There are only a few flowers still blooming around our hives, so the bees have to work extra hard to travel and collect nectar. (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Our hives upon arrival.  The sugar water jar feeders on top of the hives
were empty.  We removed them and took them home to be cleaned.

Hive 01 still has only one deep hive box and about three frames of bees.  There is a good deal of brood and larvae and the hive was very busy.

Hive 01 bees fill up about three frames of bees.

Hive 01 larvae and capped brood.

Hive 02 also has one deep hive box.  Is in same condition as hive 01, but has about four frames of bees.

Hive 02 capped brood and larvae.

We removed the super from hive 03.  While it had 10 frames of comb built out, it did not have honey, so there was no need to keep it in place this late in the year.  We will take it home and freeze the components before storing it away until next season.  We saw the queen in this hive and the colony is very healthy.

Hive 03 queen is in the upper left portion of the frame.
The "orange dots" left of center are drone brood (male bees) that will hatch soon.

A few weeks ago, we didn't squeeze our frames in hive 04 close enough together.  This is what happens when the frames are not tight.  The bees drew their honeycomb out really far and then filled it with honey.  Now we have to be careful not to squeeze the frames together or the honey will press out and make a huge mess for the bees.  The hive had great brood and larvae. 

Honey sticks out too far at the top of some of hive 04 frames.

Hive 04 has capped brood on the left of this frame, but
they still have some comb to build out on the right.

This frame in hive 04 has a great brood pattern.  The honey
is bulging out around the brood.

Hive 05 had a super that we removed.  It also had comb built out on the frames, but no honey. We saw our queen in this hive and the colony is healthy with tons of bees, larvae, brood and honey.

Hive 05 frame with brood, larvae, eggs and pollen.

Hive 05 queen near the middle of the frame. 
Notice the small larvae in the cells around her.

Hive 06 has two deep boxes and the frames are nearly completely full.  There are just a few frames still being drawn out with comb in the top deep hive box.  This colony has tons of larvae and honey.

Hive 06 brood.

Hive 07 is healthy and has one deep hive box that is full of bees.  We saw queen in this hive, and that gives us comfort that all is well.

A small island of brood on this frame in hive 07.

Hive 07 tons of brood and some pollen.

Hive 07 queen with her bees.

Hive 08 is in similar shape as hive 07.  There are tons of bees, larvae, honey and eggs.  Each time we open this hive box, we are amazed that this queen rebounded so well.  Remember, at one point in time, she was not laying eggs much and we had planned to replace her with a new queen.  I'm glad we didn't, as she is a hard working queen now!

Many frames of bees in hive 08.

Hive 08 brood hear middle and left.
Honey is glowing orange in the upper right.

Hive 08 brood and honey.

Mark and I are very pleased that each of our colonies are doing so well.  We have learned so much over the past couple of years and have come a long way with our beekeeping skills!

Our eight hives at the end of the hot day.